Reactions to Bush on SCHIP
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| Topics: children, insurance, politics
The response to the administration’s announcement of a unilateral decision to limit SCHIP (States Children's Health Insurance Program) to families earning twice the federal poverty rate has created an August storm. At least 18 states are affected. The edict also requires children to verify that they have been uninsured for at least one year before enrolling; and states must enroll 95 percent of the kids meeting those standards before they may expand. Below is a sample of reactions:
In Iowa, the Des Moines Register (August 22) quotes the director of the Iowa Department of Human Services, saying, “The Bush administration seems to regard SCHIP as ‘a communicable disease, imposing virtually impossible standards. . .The president didn't like what Congress was doing. He took matters into his own hands.’” This response comes from Republican Senator Charles Grassley's home state. Grassley has been a critic of SCHIP because it permitted state waivers for adults to enroll in what was originally designated a program for poor children. KATC (August 23), a local television station in Louisiana, says the rule change threatens the legislature's authorization for families earning three times the poverty rate. In California, the Los Angeles Times (August 23) accuses the Bush administration of attempting to hide its efforts -- announced at 7:30 on a Friday evening -- to do something "politically unpopular and deeply immoral." A headline in the The Carbarro Citizen, a North Carolina weekly, sums many responses when it says, "Politics may prevent children from seeing a doctor." Houston’s schools, however, are not waiting for politicians to untangle a situation made worse by delay. The Houston Chronicle reports a program to identify 40,000 kids without health insurance and get them into the system. Finally, New York Newsday (August 23), notes an underlying theme succinctly: "President George W. Bush should learn to take no for an answer."
